Jacob - 1991 Traveller

In 1991 Jacob was travelling the world. Now he's working in KILROY's head office in Copenhagen. Read about his experience as a world traveller 20 years ago.

Lives in

Copenhagen - Denmark

Daily occupation

Jacob works as a Business Area Manager at KILROY. In common
tounge this means that Jacob is responsible for developing
the ISIC- and the Wunder Card brands in the Nordics.

Backpacking experience

Jacob travelled to Thailand and Australia in
1991. Back then Jacob worked part time at McDonald's and one
of his colleagues had just returned from a trip to Thailand. Jacob
and a friend decided to go for it and a couple of months later they
were headed east.

Planning

There was no internet in 1991 so Jacob found a cheap ticket
by monitoring the travel ads in the
sunday newspapers. When he saw a good price he had to be fast.
This meant waiting on the phone (back then you could wait for 2-3
hours) or going down to the travel agency early Monday
morning to wait in line.

No internet also meant that it was hard to plan where to stay
when you arrived in a new city. Jacob's friend from
McDonalds gave him a business card and told him about Kao San
Road in Bangkok and this was where he stayed the first nights.
Later he followed advice from fellow travelers or let himself be
shanghaied by locals when he arrived in a new city. Nothing was
booked ahead.

Culture shock

Jacob really hated the first week in Bangkok. He thought
the city was too big, dirty, polluted and it was terribly hot.
After getting out of Bangkok and away from the crowds he started to
enjoy travelling. When Jacob arrived in Australia he had already
gotten used to the backpacking way of life and found Australia to
be a great country.

Poste restante and letter writing

In 1991 travellers wrote letters. Calling home was way to
expensive for a traveler on a budget. Jacob says he
wrote 2 or maximum 3 letters to his parents during his 4
months of backpacking. Friends and relatives could reach him
using Poste
Restante.

Poste Restante is a mail service that allows you to send mail to
a person without an address. You send the mail to the main
post office in a city together with the name of the person you are
writing to. You can still use the poste restante system to send
mail.

Best and worst travel experience

"In Australia I met a Finnish couple that was going to
sail a catamaran back home to Finland. They needed an extra
crew member and I decided to join.

Unfortunately the chemistry between me and the couple didn't
work out and I had to leave the boat 3 weeks after I joined
them. This is one of my best travel experiences because I was just
going for it - not knowing what to expect. At the same time it
was a downer to take the consequence of the bad chemistry between
me and the couple.

Advice for other world travelers

"Bring as little as possible. I had a backpack AND two
sports bags full of stuff. I remember that I ironed 4-5 shirts
before I left. When I arrived in Sydney I decided to leave most of
my stuff at a hostel. I never used my ironed shirts."